Who Lives Here: John, Steven, and Bob (the turtle)
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Size: 560 square feet
What is your one favorite element in your small, cool home? Over the years we have both picked up a few art pieces that reflect our personalities, and moving in together gave us the incentive to display our favorites. Lincoln Center prints found their place among others from a London street market and a Haeckel biology text. A grandmother's orange slag glass vase inspired an entire collection. And a reproduction Calder mobile was a joint decision, based on a mutual love of the artist.
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What was one of the biggest challenges you faced in furnishing your small home? The apartment has minimal storage space. We wanted a solution that was practical, cost efficient, and unique. After some research, we found about three dozen wine crates in various sizes from a gentleman on Craigslist. The raw wood was stained darker to blend with the other wood in the apartment. They are now used as bookcases and storage bins for everything from shoes to knitting. We even turned one into a coffee table using legs from broken furniture found on the street.
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Comments (30)
lovely.
I love the pale green on the walls in the first pic, makes it look so serene.
Second the pale green. What paint color is it?
That first picture is lovely. I love the wine boxes looks great.
Love the insects above the bed!
cute... but i'd never sleep with those bugs above the bed!
Your bookcase is great! Did you guys build it yourselves?
Love! The kitchen is my favorite part I think... Where did you get the lovely blue/brown rug from the first picture?
This is a great example of making room for what you love. You have a small space, but you still have room for a piano and an aquarium. The wine boxes look wonderful too. Kudos to you for taking the time to add value to them with a little sanding and stain, the care you took has transformed them into something that is definitely a cut above.
Also the outside of my boat is almost the same color as your bedroom and I hate it. But in your home it looks beautiful. Just goes to show you there is no such thing as a bad color, just a bad application!
I love the curtains hanging between the bedroom/living room--a great way to never close the French doors, but get some privacy if necessary! It looks like they're mounted on a sliding track--is that easy to do? Anybody know?
Lovely space. I also would like to know where you got the damask rug, it would be perfect in my new bedroom.
Great use of space here...they have a lot of stuff but it doesn't look cluttered. The bookcase is awesome and I love all the color choices.
I love what you did with the space... thanks for the pointers.
I love this too - especially the kitchen.
I think you bought that wood box find out from under me on Craigslist. I called the guy about them and he said some guy had bought them a few hours before! Jealous but its a simple and lovely apartment.
It is a simple and lovely apartment. I love seeing places that just ARE, rather than trying so hard to create a particular style or effect. Even when I looked at the first picture I got a sense that there was a lot of love in this place. Really nice--cozy and warm.
very nice! would you mind telling us how you made your bookcase? thanks!
I've seen people attempt to use wine crates as storage bins, and it just didn't look right. These look like you actually purchased them, and look beautiful with the rest of your home! Kudos to you!
Lovely... and very cozy, homey feeling without losing any of the sophisticated feel. Love the wine crate shelves, maybe I'll stain mine as well.
P.S. What about Bob?
I love the desk area especially.
Yay! Really cozy, great place. Thumbs up!
Hope the turtle doesn't eat up too much space. :~D
Where did you get the red mobile?
Very nice, different art work, i wish the art work was hung lower so it looked like it was part of the seating. Not really into the bugs above the bed, kind of freaks me out but very cool place.
I'm always jealous of french doors leading to the bedroom... luv! Nice kitchen as well, very cute overall :)
Not a fan of the thing with all the books and shoes. I think something with doors would be a better choice but I like everything else. Good Luck.
Great kitchen from what I can see. That alone makes it all worthwhile.
So harmonious and lovely.
Thank you everyone for such supportive comments!
To answer a few of your questions:
We stained the crates, but didn't end up sanding them. Stacking them was complicated because wine crates come in many different inconsistent sizes. They aren't attached to each other, so we can continue using them in different ways.
The damask rug came from Home Decorators.
The mobile was made my a man from Texas we found online - we worked with him on the size and design.
And Bob is very happy to have received all this attention! You can see his tank in the kitchen picture. He's a red-ear slider, and hopefully he won't get to much bigger...
Congrats, very lovely and homey. I like the mix of elements and DIY stuff - great use of storage (I couldn't figure out what was in the box beside the sofa table but nice spot and colorful-- sweaters? towels? socks?). Also, nice to see someone else with a small piano and large jack!
I really like the kitchen.